In my experience it is a pretty buoyant market. It seems that even small companies are hiring HR people these days. But I do think that the job can be very variable and so you need to think carefully before taking a job. The ethics of the company and its leaders are quite critical to how good a job it is going to be. I know of more than one HR manager who has felt the need to leave the company because they did not agree with the way things were done and were unable to do anything about it